A: There are at
least three popular answers - Control Program for
Microcomputers, Control Program for Microprocessors, and Control
Program/Monitor. The issue is clouded by authors of popular CP/M books giving
different answers. According to Gary Kildall (author of CP/M), in response
to a this question on the PBS show "The Computer Chronicles" after Computer
Bowl I, CP/M stands for Control Program for
Microcomputers.This is also consistent with
DRI documentation. See, p. 4 of the DRI TEX manual.

A:
CP/M is not in
the public domain. It is owned by
Caldera, Inc. and a part
of the Canopy Group, which is Ray Noorda's group of emerging advanced technology
companies. This Digital Research CP/M FAQ is the definitive source for Digital
Research CP/M files and information, and has been adapted from the comp.os.cpm
FAQ in 1998. Please advise us if any of the links or references below have
changed or are no longer valid. We will be continually updating this
site from December 01, 1998 forward.

Caldera is not offering a
commercial version of CP/M at this time, but there are there at least 4 sources
for the purchase of new, legal copies of CP/M:

On the other hand, there
have been lots of greatly improved clones, including ZCPR3 for the command
processor and several replacements for the BDOS. Some of these are commercial
(e.g., ZSDOS/ZDDOS), but many have been released to the public. Most of the
latter can be obtained from http://oak.oakland.edu/oak/cpm/index-cpm-pre.html
or BBSs.

There is also a CP/M-Plus
replacement named ZPM3, written by Simeon Cran. It offers much more performance
and some additional features compared to CP/M-Plus. An extended CCP, the
ZCCP, is also available. Unfortunately, it still seems to have some bugs.
ZPM3 and ZCCP are free! However no sources as Simeon won't give them
away.

The main archive is
http://oak.oakland.edu/oak/cpm/index-cpm-pre.html.
Assuming the availability of anonymous ftp, look into the subdirectories
of /pub/cpm. There is a lot there! One of the first directories to check
is starter-kit. It contains everything you need to get up and running. If
you wish to submit material to http://oak.oakland.edu/oak/cpm/index-cpm-pre.html,
please contact: Jeff Marraccini, Senior Computing Resource Administrator,
Oakland University, Rochester, MI USA 48309-4401, Phone: (810)370-4542,
jeff@vela.acs.oakland.edu
or jdm@msen.com. He will send you
any instructions and passwords necessary to perform an FTP upload.

Ftp.update.uu.se specializes
on CP/M programs for the DEC Rainbow, but has also some generic CP/M software
such as a Micro Emacs, the HI-TECH Z80 C compiler and a few games. Questions
about this site can be directed to Tom Karlsson,
tomk@Student.DoCS.UU.SE, the site
administrator.

There is a European file
server group, named TRICKLE. This group mirrors oak.oakland and other archives.
For more information, get in touch with your local TRICKLE
operator.

A: To join
the CPM-L mailing list, which is gatewayed to and from comp.os.cpm, you must
send email to the list server. If you are on BITNET, send the following command:
SUBSCRIBE CPM-Lyour full name to LISTSERV@RPITSVM.
If you are not on BITNET, the Internet subscription address is
LISTSERV@VM.ITS.RPI.EDU. Send mail to that address with this text in the
body of the message: SUBSCRIBE
CPM-Lyour full
name

A: Unfortunately,
SLR sold out to Symantec and all products except for one DOS (or Windows)
tool have been withdrawn from the market (what a shame). However, Sage
Microsystems East (contact Jay Sage) does carry the excellent ZMAC package
including a macrorelocatable assembler, linker, and librarian. Except for
the speed, ZMAC is better and cheaper than the standard SLR tools.

MIX C and other MIX products are available from:

Ed Grey, P.O. Box #2186, Inglewood, CA 90305

Phone: (213)759-7406
<ac959@cleveland.Freenet.Edu>.

Hi-Tech C V3.09 for CP/M is
now freeware. The authors are still maintaining their copyright, but are
allowing free use for both private and commercial users without royalty.
The original is on their bbs in Australia, at (61)(7)300-5235. Copies can
be obtained from:

ftp.update.uu.se: /pub/rainbow/cpm/c

ftp.mcc.ac.uk: /pub/8051c/htc.zip

http://oak.oakland.edu/oak/cpm/index-cpm-pre.html:
/pub/cpm/hitech-c

ftp://ftp.hitech.com.au/hitech/cpm

http://www.hitech.com.au

Sage Microsystems East still
offers BDS C, in both the original, straight CP/M version and in a version
that includes Z-System support. The package, with both versions of the compiler
and a very large manual, is only $25. Micro Emacs is available
from:

ftp.update.uu.se: /pub/rainbow/cpm/emacs

Public domain CP/M programs are available via:

Elliam Associates, Box 2664, Atascadero, CA 93423

Phone: (805)466-8440

In the past, Elliam has sold
Turbo Pascal, Uniform, Nevada COBOL, SuperCalc, and much more. Call for
availability and price.

Dynacomp stills sell CP/M
software (or to be accurate, they still had several dozen CP/M programs in
the 1992 catalog.) It is the kind of programs which ought to be written in
BASIC: Typing tutors, little engineering programs like calculation of the
stiffness of beams, education math programs. Their address is:

There is no known U.S. source
to purchase the following programs: muMath/muSim, any Microsoft product (M80,
L80, F80, Pascal, BASIC), VEdit, but Jay Sage has copies of a number of programs
that were donated to his Boston Computer Society Zitel User Group. As of
this writing, there are some copies of Turbo Pascal, F80/M80/L80, Perfect
Writer and other programs in the Perfect line, WordStar and other programs
in the 'Star' line, and quite a number of others. They may be obtained in
exchange for a cash donation to the user group. Most have been "abandoned"
by their makers, but not placed in the public domain. Contact Jay
Sage.

Much CP/M software is still
available in Germany, including dBASE, dBASSI, WordStar 3.0, Multiplan, SuperCalc
PCW, and Microsoft Basic (Interpreter and Compiler), M80, L80, CREF80 , and
LIB80 can be ordered in either PCW format or C128 (also native 1571) format
from:

A:
Programmers looking for examples of commonly used Z80 assembler routines
may want to look at "Z80 Assembly Language Subroutines" by Leventhal and
Saville. It was published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill in 1983 (ISBN 0-931988-91-8),
and it 497 pages long. It also contains general programming information,
as well as a summary of the Z80 instruction set and reference data for the
Z80 PIO. Assembler routines given in the book fall into the following categories:
code conversion, array manipulation and indexing, arithmetic, bit manipulation
and shifts, string manipulation, I/O, and interrupts. For transcendental
routines, it is generally better to use a high level language, such as Hi-Tech
C, where they are built-in.

A:
The YASBEC (uses a 64180, has SCSI interface), written up in TCJ, issues
#51 and #52. It is important that the YASBEC uses a proprietary bus system.
The CPU280 (uses a Z280, an IDE interface is available), also written up
in TCJ, issues #52 and #53. Circuit boards are available from Jay Sage and
Ralph Becker-Szendy. CPU280 uses the ECB-bus which allows many other I/O
cards to be connected. Ampro Little Board products were available from Dean
Davidge of Davidge Corporation, Buellton, CA, but he may have moved and the
address and phone number are unknown.

A: The disk
is now being shipped. It contains over 19,000 files with executable programs,
source code, documentation, and other materials. Included are the the entire
Simtel20 pub/cpm archives, the contents of some major bulletin boards, and
the personal collections of several leaders in the CP/M community. You'll
find assemblers, compilers, code libraries, programming tools, editors, word
processors, spreadsheets, calculators, Disk, printer, modem and other system
utilities, archive and compression tools, telecommunication software for
users and BBS operators, articles from user's group journals and other
publications, games and educational software, help files.

You'll also find CP/M emulators
and other tools for working with CP/M files under DOS, OS/2, and Unix. Most
programs include not only documentation but also complete source code. Programs
for all different computers are on the disc: Kaypro, Osborne, Commodore,
Amstrad, Starlet, and others. This disc comes with a MSDOS view program which
allows you to view, decompress, or copy files to your disk. It's fully BBS'd
with description files compatible with popular MSDOS BBS programs. The cost
is $39.95 plus $5 shipping and handling (per order, not per disk) for US/Canada,
and $10 for airmail overseas. If you live in California, please add sales
tax. For further information: info@cdrom.com

A: One solution
is Sydex' excellent shareware program 22DISK which permits reading, writing,
and formatting many CP/M format disks on a PC. It is available on:
http://oak.oakland.edu/oak/cpm/index-cpm-pre.html:
/pub/msdos/diskutil/22dsk142.zip. 22DISK is shareware and should be
registered. It supports 8-inch drives on PC's, provided either a adaptor
is wired to the PC's floppy controller or that a CompatiCard is installed.
Sydex or Herb Johnson can provide assistance with using standard PC controllers.
Sydex can be reached at:

If it's for an IBM type system,
talk to them about what kind of hardware/software you have. Some flavors
of PC have a problem with both UniForm and 22disk and UniForm will
not operate properly under DR-DOS v6.0. UniForm also fails if the machine
clock exceeds ~20MHz. This has been confirmed with Micro Solutions, and no
fix is available.

You need not use the DOS machine
- there are also at least three transfer programs running under CP/M: TRANSFER
(for CP/M-2.2),of which a quick-hack CP/M-3 adaptation also exists; DOSDISK,
and MSDOS for CP/M-Plus written by Tilmann Reh, latest version 2.1 of Oct
93. TRANSFER and MSDOS are freely available, DOSDISK is
commercial.

MSDOS has two related utilities:
MSFORM will create the DOS Boot Record, FAT and directory structure on a
freshly formatted disk, and MSDIR will give you a quick look at the main
directory of a DOS disk. DosDisk is a standard CP/M product. As supplied,
it runs only on the following specific hardware: all Kaypros equipped with
a TurboROM, all Kaypros equipped with a KayPLUS ROM and QP/M or CP/M, Xerox
820-I equipped with a Puls-2 ROM and QP/M, Ampro Little Board SB180 and SB180FX
equipped with XBIOS, Morrow MD3 and MD11, Oneac On!, and Commodore C128 with
CP/M-3 and 1571 drive.

There is also a kit version
for which the user can write his own driver, provided the BIOS implements
a table-driven disk interface. Contact Jay Sage for details. DosDisk and
MSDOS both handle DOS subdirectories. Remember, these conversion programs
only move the data, as is, in its current binary form, from one disk format
to another. They do not reinterpret the data so that a different program
can use the information. However, there are some tools under DOS that will
convert word processing file data among different word processors, such as
WordStar, Word Perfect, and Microsoft Word. If the CP/M computer that made
the original disk is still running, you might want to try to generate a pure
text (ASCII) version of your information (e.g., by "printing to disk") before
moving it over to a DOS disk. If the computer is not working but you still
have the program, you might try copying it over to a DOS disk and running
it under a CP/M emulator on the DOS machine to produce a text
file.

A: David
McGlone and Elliam Associates (see above) offer disk conversion services
at modest prices that can convert from just about any format to just about
any other format. If you have a Kaypro equipped with an Advent TurboROM,
Plu*Perfect Systems offers a program called MULTICPY that can read/write
about one hundred different 5 1/4 formats. It is not possible to directly
read/write Apple II CP/M disks on any other host machine because an Apple
disk is recorded in GCR which is incompatible with FM/MFM disk
controllers.

The only way to get CP/M files
in or out of Apple II CP/M disks is via a serial link with a non-Apple II
host or with special hardware. For example, MicroSolutions had a device called
the MatchPoint PC. When used in conjunction with a MicroSolutions CompatiCard,
files can be read from an Apple CP/M disk and transfer to another disk format
with a special configuration of UniForm. MicroSolutions can be reached at:
(815)756-3411

There exists a program called
"Jugg'ler" for the C128's CP/M that will read/write 140 different CP/M formats
both 3.5 and 5.25 MFM (and some GCR) formats. A demo version with 22 formats,
and other C128 specific CP/M software, can be found at:
ftp://ccnga.waterloo.ca/pub/cbm/os/cpm The last known source for the complete
version of Jugg'ler, Herne Data Systems, is no longer in business. The CPU280
CP/M-3 implementation offers the AutoFormat feature which allows to format,
read and write almost every disk format.

Another way of converting
formats is to use a PC with 22DISK - just copy the files from one CP/M disk
to DOS, and then back to the other CP/M disk.

A: Available by anonymous
ftp from the primary mirror site
http://oak.oakland.edu/oak/cpm/index-cpm-pre.html and its mirrors located
at: simtel/msdos/emulator/zsim241.zip ZSIM is an (extremely accurate) Z80
emulator (80386/40 -8 MHz Z80) in conjunction with a CP/M 80 BIOS, i.e. it
simulates a Z80 machine, that can run CP/M. Together with the original CP/M
operating system you have a full Z80-CP/M machine.

If you don't have a CP/M system
disk at hand, you can use the included public domain CP/M compatible operating
system P2DOS. ZSIM uses CP/M format disks, a ram disk and a hard disk. Supported
disk formats are CP/M 86 single sided and double sided, but you can install
any singled sided CP/M format PC drives can physically read. So you can use
ZSIM to transfer data to MS-Dos. The RAM disk can be saved to the PC hard
disk. The hard disk is in an MS-DOS file. A sample hard disk containing the
SMALL-C compiler is included.

As ZSIM uses an original operating
system and CP/M disks it should run every CP/M program that does not use
special hardware. ZSIM is free for personal use. Sources of the CP/M BIOS
are included. On silver.cstpl.com.au (formerly: raven.alaska.edu) you'll
find: /pub/coherent/sources/z80pack.tar.Z. (Also available as z80pack.tgz
at ftp.cs.uni-sb.de in the directory /pub/others.) This is a Z80 CPU emulation
completely written in C, an I/O emulation for a typical CP/M system also
is included. The package also comes with the BIOS source for the I/O emulation
and a Z80 cross-assembler. It was developed it under COHERENT but it's known
that it does work under Linux and SunOS too. You still need a CP/M license
to get CP/M running or you might try to get one of the free available CP/M
clones running on it. On a 486/66 DX2 running COHERENT it's like a 11Mhz
Z80 CPU, so the emulation speed is acceptable.

On sunsite.unc.edu you'll
find: /pub/Linux/system/Emulators/cpm-0.2.tar.gz This package, written by
Michael Bischoff, is well integrated into the host operating system.
It provides options to use either a container file for the CP/M disk for
full BIOS compatibility, or to access the Linux file system through the included
BDOS emulator. The Z80 emulator is written in 86 assembler and the rest is
in C. A pre-assembled ZDOS CCP is included with the package. The emulation
speed on a 486/66 is approximately a 22 Mhz Z80, and on a Pentium/90 it is
50 Mhz. Full source is included.

On
http://oak.oakland.edu/oak/cpm/index-cpm-pre.html you will find:
/pub/msdos/emulator/myz80111.zip. MYZ80 is a Z80/64180 emulator package.
The new 80486, 80386 & 80286 machines with the fast hard drives and the
snazzy OS/2 operating systems are such a delight... but for many, the Z80
machines still have to be fired up from to time in order to develop code
for CP/M and the Z80 chip. Well, not any more, thanks to MYZ80.

Other emulators on the market
are less than satisfactory solutions. Of the small number which can actually
run without causing system errors under the later versions of DOS, apparently
none is capable of running real CP/M. Instead they use an emulated version
of CP/M which is only as accurate as the developers have bothered to make
it.

MYZ80 can run CP/M 3.0 and
ZCPR (which is such a useful Z80 developer's environment). So if you suffer
from less than perfect Z80 emulation and slow overall performance, give MYZ80
a try, and save the 'real' Z80 machines for those cold winter mornings when
you really need the heat. The author of MYZ80, Simon Cran, can be reached
at:

Simeon Cran P/L, PO Box 5706,
West End, Queensland, AUstralia 4101

Simeon.Cran@f236.n640.z3.fidonet.org

22NICE is (like 22DISK) from
Sydex. It emulates the application program while translating all BDOS and
BIOS calls into the appropriate DOS calls. This way, it's comparably fast
and allows for free use of the DOS file system (including paths). You are
able to map drive/user combinations to particular paths in the DOS file system.
The emulator can be configured for different emulation modes (8080, Z80,
and automatic detection) and different terminal emulations. There are two
run-time options: First, you can create a small COM file which will then
load both the emulator and the CP/M program (contained in a .CPM file to
avoid confusions); Second, you can build the emulator and the application
together to a single COM file (which is larger then but needs no run-time
module).

MicroSolutions still has their
UniDOS Z80 card available. It has an 8MHz Z80 with 64k of ram with UniDOS
system software and Uniform-PC. It's a half size plug-in card.

You will also find on
http://oak.oakland.edu/oak/cpm/index-cpm-pre.html:
pub/unix-c/cpm/yaze-1.00.tar.gz . Yaze is a Z80 and CP/M emulator
designed to run on Unix systems. The package consists of an instruction set
simulator, a CP/M-2.2 bios written in C which runs on the Unix host, a monitor
which loads CP/M into the simulated processor's ram and makes Unix directories
or files look like CP/M disks, and a separate program (cdm) which creates
and manipulates CP/M disk images for use with yaze. Yaze's emulates all
documented and most undocumented Z80 instructions and flag bits. A test program
is included in the package which compares machine states before and after
execution of every instruction against actual Z80. Yaze is independent of
the host machine architecture and instruction set, written in ANSI standard
C, and is provided with full source code under the GNU General Public License.
It supports CP/M disk geometries as images in Unix files or as read-only
disks constructed on-the-fly. These disks are indistinguishable from real
disks for even the most inquisitive, low-level CP/M programs and can be mounted
and unmounted at will during emulation.

Parag Patel provides a z80
and CP/M emulator at: + ftp://ftp.cgt.com/pub/z80/z80.tgz. This
archive includes complete sources and has been ported to a number of
Unix systems as well as DOS and the Mac. Executables for both are available
in the same directory. It run exceedingly fast on DEC Alphas. It can use
either PDOS or CP/M 2.2. The PDOS image is included with the sources and
the modified source for PDOS can be found in the same directory as well.
There is a CP/M 2.2 Simulator that simulates an 8080 CPU and CP/M 2.2
environment. The heart of the simulator is written in 680x0 assembly language
for speed. It has been tested under DNIX (SVR2 compatible with many SVR3,
BSD, Xenix, and Sun extensions), on a 68030 NeXT, and on a 68030 Amiga running
SVR4. One 'benchmark' shows that on machines of the 68020/68030 class the
simulator performs about as well as a 7 MHz Z-80 would. Other tests indicate
that this is somewhat optimistic. The simulator was posted to alt.sources
and can be found at:

A: Getting a system
disk is pretty easy - if Dina-SIG CP/M System Disk Archives has it. However,
some dialogue with the requester has usually been necessary to assure
that we are talking about the same Jurassic inhabitant! There are just too
many variants in the CP/M world. A request with specifics on the computer,
an address to mail to, and some recompense is all it takes. Since this is
an unfunded effort on the part of the SIG, the costs of media, mailer, and
postage must be recouped. In general, and there are variations, this runs
$3 for the first disk and $2 or less for each additional. Eight inch disks
are a bit more! However, a swap can be arranged if the other party has disks
that are not duplicative of ones already in the archive. If you can help
augment the archive, yours is free. The keeper of the archives can be reached
at:

The leading CP/M public domain
or freeware (author kept copyright but distributed it for free) modem programs
are:

MDM740 - The last of the "MDMxxx"
programs.

IMP245 - This is nice, and
works smoothly within what it does. What it does, it does very well. IF you
have slow floppy drives, there is a patch to cut down the receive buffer
size.

MEX114 - different from the
above two, but minimally functional with just a MDM740 overlay. To use all
of its fine features, you need MEX overlay for your machine.

ZMP15 - This program includes
ZMODEM file transfers.

KERMIT - This program may
have the widest implementation base because it uses only printable characters
for its file transfers. This is a plus because the MODEM7 family of protocols
send binary characters that sometimes conflict with the underlying system
use. It is a minus because many more characters must be sent and thus is
slower. KERMIT may be found on watsun.cc.columbia.edu.

QTERM43F - This is somewhat
like using QMODEM on an MSDOS machine. Qterm has VT100 emulation mode as
well as XMODEM and KERMIT protocol. If you can get (or write) a good overlay,
this is a nice program. (Bug fixes to 43E were released in a separate library
to bring it up to 43F. The FIX library did not include a new binary; users
had to do their own patching.) For high speed transfers, you will probably
need interrupt-driven routines, which are available for some these. The exact
baud rate where it becomes necessary varies by system and program.

Archive files are a collection
of related files packed together so they stay together. They have somewhat
been replaced by librarys, but are still encountered often. The C or K at
the end only differentiate the original packing program, they are otherwise
identical. Some archives are self extracting, just rename them with a .com
ending and execute them. Others must be unpacked with a program, unarc16.ark
containing one of the most popular (in a self extracting archive). This archive
can be found at:

A: A .lbr is a
single file that contains a number of compressed files inside. The files
must be extracted from the .lbr before the can be used. One very good library
extract program is called lbrext.com. It's simple to use and uncrunches
the files at the same time.

EXAMPLE:A:>lbrext b:myfile.lbr c:*.* uo

This takes the lbrext.com
file on 'A' to extract all the files in myfile.lbr on 'B' and put them on
'C' uncrunched. A simple 'lbrext' first will show you how to use the .com
file. Other popular library maintenance programs are LUE, DELBR, and NULU,
the latter being one of the best CP/M programs for handling LBRs. However,
don't use NULU to extract and unsqueeze simultaneously. It occasionally screws
up doing this, and it can trash an entire disk when it does so. LT31 is also
able to unpack libraries and also supports all current compression standards
(including LZH 2.0!). It is a very useful utility and can replace several
single programs.

A:
These are compressed files, a.k.a. squeezed or crunched files. They must
be uncompressed before they can be used. They differ in the compression
algorithm; .?Q? was the first generation and .?Y? the newest. There are many
fine programs that uncompress files, but most handle only one or two compression
types (e.g. SQ111.ARC and CRUNCH24.LBR). One program that will uncompress
all three types can be found in CRLZH20.LBR.

A: The basic problem
is that updating the screen takes too long and some incoming characters are
missed. The exact baud rate where characters begin to disappear depends on
the configuration of the Kaypro and the terminal program.

Generally, the older non-graphic
Kaypros will run at a much higher baud rate before characters start to disappear.
Stock Kaypros are not interrupt driven and the BIOS ROM has several built-in
delays, which demanded too much of a 2x/4x/10's time. Several things can
be done to help the situation. If your Kaypro came with the MITE software
package, you can use it for high speed terminal emulation. A Kaypro 2X using
MITE can go as fast as 19200 bps. MITE uses interrupts to achieve this. Sometimes
the problem can be ignored. A 2X will drop characters at 300 baud using
Kermit-80. File transfers work fine at 19200 bps. It is always a good ides
to run file transfers in the quiet mode if terminal mode is dropping characters
as then the display update time is minimized.

The graphic-equipped Kaypros
can be significantly improved in terminal mode just by turning off the status
line at the bottom of the screen. As most terminal programs have an initialize
sequence available, just send the no status line command to the Kaypro -
<ESC>, C, 7 [1BH, 43H, 37H in hex]. There are several hardware changes
that can lessen or eliminate the problem. There is a speed modification for
the 1983 Kaypro-II's & IV's requiring changing some chips to faster versions
and outfitting the back with a toggle switch. Upgrading to a MicroCornucopia
MAX-8 or Advent TurboROM also helps. If your machine is equipped with the
Advent TurboROM and you choose to run QTERM, Don Kirkpatrick can send you
an interrupt driver that allows the graphic-enhanced Kaypros to work just
fine to at least 2400 baud.

A: The Advent
TurboROM is a firmware upgrade to the Kaypro. It replaces the original Kaypro
system ROM and provides flexible configurations, additional disk formats,
greater speed, and bug fixes. The contact point for this is:

A: If you have
a Kaypro, Chuck Stafford can sell you a hard drive conversion kit. (See Q20.)
Emerald Microware no longer offers hardware support. Tilmann Reh, an engineer
in Germany, has designed an IDE hard drive iinterface that plugs into a Z-80
socket, and described it in The Computer Journal magazine as the Generic
IDE (GIDE). He has produced a number of kits that include the circuit board,
parts, and even a time of day clock chip. Several people have bought these
(as of Jan 1996) and are beginning to write software to support these on
various Z-80 based computers (including ADAM and TRS-80 as well as CP/M based
systems). Europeans can contact Tilmann Reh directly. In the USA, Tilmann
may refer you to a US distributor. In addition, The Computer Journal has
a Web page with references to the GIDE. (See Q23.) The current US distributor
is Herb Johnson (See Q30.)

A: A clock and
modem go there. The modem is rather useless as it is only 300 baud. The
clock/calendar is useful. The Computer Journal, issue 64, Nov./Dec. 1993,
describes the installation procedure. There is also an area on a 2X for a
hard drive interface.

A: The Computer
Journal is a magazine specializing in CP/M, small systems, and related topics.
The Editor is Dave Baldwin. Chuck Stafford writes a regular column on Kaypros
and Herb Johnson writes one on S-100. In their own words: The Computer Journal
has articles and reviews on both new and old hardware and software. In the
last year, there have been articles on most of the popular microcontrollers,
reviews of a new Z180 system for CP/M, modifications for older systems, software
articles and tutorials on Forth, 'C', and assembly language, and the 'Centerfold'
schematics for older computer circuits.

In general, we cover hardware
and software that one person can work with, where you can 'do it yourself'.
This means boards and systems where you can identify (and get) the parts
and get code to make it work. In particular, this means the Kaypro, S-100
boards, Z80/180/280 and CP/M systems, microcontrollers like the 8048, 8051,
and 68HC11, and software articles that include source code. This is also
why we started covering the PC-XT clones made with identifiable ttl parts.
Bios code is also available for them now so you can make them do what you
want. On the other hand, if a project or system requires an engineering team
or access to custom IC's, you probably won't read about it in TCJ. The exception
to that is when our authors and/or readers get together for a project and
can provide all the necessary resources.

There are six issues per year,
and the subscription rate is $24 for 1 year, or $44 for 2. Subscriptions
may be sent to:

The The Computer Journal has
it's own mailing list. To subscribe, send an email message to
'Majordomo@psyber.com' with subscribe list-tcj <your@email.address>
end as the body of the message. 'list-tcj' is a digested mailing list - the
messages are collected during the day and then sent out to subscribers in
the middle of the night. That way, you only get one email message from the
list on any day. The Computer Journal (TCJ) has a Web Site at
www.psyber.com and their
e-mail at tcj@psyber.com.

A: WACCI on
http://info.ox.ac.uk/~chri0264/wowww.html, now includes: A directory of suppliers
for Amstrad CPC and PCW machines An "email helpline" of contacts who are
willing to give advice A listing of other Amstrad user groups and magazines
Forthcoming events in the Amstrad world The WACCI PD Library listings - both
Amstrad and CP/M stuff. There is also a limited amount of information on
WACCI itself, the UK's biggest Amstrad CPC user club.

A: The original
ZCPR was written in Z80 code and was called the "Z80 Command Processor
Replacement". It was a drop-in replacement for the Digital Research CCP (Console
Command Processor) and adhered to the 800H space restriction.ZCPR2
(February 14, 1983) was the first experiment in greatly extending the power
of the command processor. It added additional memory modules for supporting
such things as multiple commands on a line, a dynamically reconfigurable
command search path, and directory names associated with drive/user
areas.

The ideas and implementation
in ZCPR2 were experimental, and they came to logical fruition in ZCPR3 (Richard
Conn's 3.0 and Jay Sage's 3.3 and 3.4). ZCPR3 gives you UNIX-like
flexibility. Features implemented include shells, aliases, I/O redirection,
flow control, named directories, search paths, custom menus, passwords, on
line help, and greater command flexibility.

ZCPR3 can be found on many
BBS and SIMTEL mirrors. The Z System commercial version is available for
a nominal fee from Jay Sage. Further details can be found in the text
"ZCPR3, The Manual", by Richard Conn, ISBN 0-918432-59-6. You
can find a detailed history of the development of ZCPR and the Z System in
Jay Sage's column in issue #54 of The Computer Journal. This article celebrated
the 10th anniversary of ZCPR, which was first released on February 2, 1982.
His "ZCPR33 User's Guide" also has a section on the history (it can be ordered
from Jay for $10, domestic shipping included).

There still are active Z-nodes
supporting Z-system and many RCP/M's supporting CP/M as well as some special
interests. As of November 7, 1995, the known BBS's supporting
the Z-System are:

A: The Z800 was
planned to be NMOS, and was finally implemented as the Z280 in CMOS, five
years late. It has a 4kB/8kB paged MMU, and separate I/D space, and cache.
There are small differences between the Z800 preliminary spec and the final
Z280 specification. The call for Z280 end-of-life last time buys went out
in December, 1995. The Z180 was not an outgrowth of the Z800. It was a joint
effort between Zilog and Hitachi.

The first two versions of
the HD64180 were slightly different from the current Z180. The current HD64180
and Z180 are identical, and both have flags in one of the control registers
to emulate the earlier versions. The changes are mostly bus timing, as the
HD64180 was designed to interface with Motorola 6800 style peripherals as
well as Intel and Zilog, which wasn't too strange since Hitachi second sources
some Motorola 6800 series products.

The Z380 is a 32-bit version
binary-compatible upgrade of the HD180. The 18MHz part in the 100-pin QFP
package is shipping. The plan for a PGA-package for the Z380 has been scrapped.
Zilog is working on a 25MHz part, but it isn't quite ready yet. The "Preliminary
Product Specfication", Zilog part number DC6003-02, documents the part. According
to the manual, the plans include a 40MHz part, but the time frame is
uncertain.

A: There was an
announcement in the trade press about a deal between Kawasaki Heavy Industries
and Zilog. Kawasaki has developed something called the KC80, which is a Z80
(no MMU, extended address space, or 32-bit enhancements), but speeded up
to execute most instructions in one or two cycles, and running at 20MHz.
Zilog has the rights to the design. The catch is that Zilog is currently
not planning to sell it as a chip.

A: The S-100
bus, also known as the IEEE-696 bus, is a bus standard of 100 pin cards,
50 pins per side, which plug into 100-pin edge connectors on a passive (i.e.
no computer logic) backplane once called a "motherboard". Dozens of computer
companies produced cards and systems to this standard in the 1970's and 1980's.
One of the first popular microcomputers was the Altair 8800 by MITS, which
was offered as a kit in the January 1974 issue of Popular
Electronics.

Each functional block of the
computer, which at that time required many logic or memory chips each, was
designed to fit a single card which plugged into a bus or "motherboard".
The function and timing of signals on the 100-pin connectors of that bus
became known as the "S-100 bus". An industry was started in producing cards
compatible to the Altair, followed by the production of whole systems. The
bus evolved as other manufacturers, such as Cromemco and Compupro, used slight
variations of the bus design for their product line.These differences
were finally addressed with the IEEE-696 standard, published by the Institute
of Electrical and Electronic Engineers in 1983.The IEEE-696 standard
was already in use by then but only influenced designs for the next few
years.

Most new CP/M personal systems
went to single-board designs with no bus at all, and competition from IBM
and Apple systems caused S-100 system production to decline.
IEEE-696 systems were subsequently developed primarily for industrial and
development applications, particularly where multiprocessing or speed were
important, through the rest of the 1980's.

Compupro and Cromemco still
support these systems at commercial prices, but apparently do not support
their prior CP/M systems except as cards for sale. Heath (later Zenith) produced
the Z-100 system (labeled Z-120, Z-121) which was IEEE-696
compatible. While they no longer support it, there are many active
Heath user groups with some Z-100 interests.

A further distinction can
be made in S-100 standards: boards designed for the Altair, IMSAI and early
Cromemco systems with front panel switches and LED displays can be called
"MITS/Altair"cards. Subsequent cards (after about 1979) grounded certain
pins and reused other pins that affected the use of front panels.

One person who provides S-100
cards, documention, and some support (1996) is Herb Johnson. As "Dr. S-100"
he writes a regular column in The Computer Journal and corresponds with S-100
and IEEE-696 owners. As of 1995 he can be reached at The Computer Journal
or at:

A:
There are a variety of sources for cross platform
development tools.

The C Users' Group (1601 W.
23rd St., Suite 200, Lawrence, KS 66046-2700) has a library of software that
includes all kinds of development tools. Source code is distributed
with many of them. They charge $4/disk and $3.50 s&h per order, and can
supply 3.5" or 5.25" DOS formats. Those of you seeking assemblers or
disassemblers will be particularly interested in volumes number 398, 363
(2 disks), 348, 346 (2 disks), 338 (2 disks), 335 (4 disks), 316, 303, and
292(4 disks). They also market a CD-ROM of volumes 100 through 364 for $49.95
list (it can usually be found at computer shows for $25 to $35). They can
be reached at 913/841-1631 FAX: 913/841-2624.

The Circuit Cellar BBS is
on-line 24 hours per day with some cross development tools, particularly
for CPU's that are commonly used as controllers. They have a Courier HST
running 2400/9600 bps at 203/871-0549, and another line that will do up to
14.4k bps (8N1) at 203/871-1988. Both of these numbers are in
Connecticut.

The Motorola BBS is in Austin,
Texas, on 512/440-3733. They have downloadable cross development products
mostly for the 68xx and 68xxx architectures. Like the Circuit Cellar BBS,
this BBS seems to specialize in micro-controller development. Many of these
files can also be accessed over the network on bode.ee.ualberta.ca
(129.128.16.96).

2500AD software lists a Z80
assembler, a Z80 C compiler (that includes the assembler in the package),
a Z280 assembler, a Z280 C compiler (that includes the assembler),
and a Z380 assembler.